Process of dyeing silk.



UNITED STATES.

Patented. January 24, 1905.

JACOB WEID'MANN, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.

PROCESS OF DYEING SILK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 780,924, dated January 24, 1905. Application filed January 7,1904. Serial No. 188,107.

To (.LZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, J AOOB WEIDMANN, a citi' zen of the United States, residing at Paterson, in the county of Passaic and State of New J ersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dyeing; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable 7 others skilled in the art to which it appertains been produced, black iron never having been successfully used on silk weighted with tin alone. Other blue-black brights have been obtained only by a long, complicated, and cumbersome procedure involving loss. A souple, taken as souple at the outset, has never been dyed blue-black, though such a method would 'eflect a great saving. Soupling in course of dyeing it has been found impossible to get over a certain percentagesay a hundred per cent.-of weight, and bright or souple blueblack, the product, has been more or less streaky. 1

I shall now proceed to sketch the phases of the prior art as outlined in the foregoing paragraph.

For lightweight blue black brights the bright has been treated with red iron, yellow prussiate, gambier, with addition of stannous chlorid, dyed with logwood and subjected to a bath of pyrolignite of iron, commonly called black iron, then washed and treated with gambier, washed again, and dyed with logwood, the temperature being raised until the desired shade is obtained. For heavier weights the silk has been first weighted in the raw with stannic chlorid and then boiled off, thus made a bright, and then treated the same as for light weights; but while it has been sought thus to obtain a heavy-weight blue-black, yet the process, besides being complicated and cumbersome, involves loss, since the tin applied to the silk in the raw spoils the gum-soap, which should subsequently economically be used in the dye-house for dye- ,ing colors, gum-soap being absolutely necesblack souple, the raw silk suitably cleansed has been treated with ferric sulfate, or, as called in the trade, red iron, and then washed, the treatment to red iron being according to weight desired and to be reached with washing after each treatment, then treated with yellow prussiate of potash or soda and hydrochloric acid and washed, the prussiate with the iron coloring the silk blue, then passed through a logwood bath and washed, then subjected to a divi-divi bath, in which bath soupling is effected, the bath being heated up several times until the gum is softened and the fibers open out and the bath having added to it at proper time stannous chlorid, according to the weight desired and attainable, and then washed and dyed, as usual, withlogwood and soap and washed, the product being thereafter finished with oil and lemon or acetic acid to give the requisite touch or feel, and we have what is known as the idivi souple and a souple of weight never over about one hundred per cent.

In all the foregoing processes it will be noted that red iron alone or iron with tinis used for weighting the silk. My process is primarily distinguished from these by employing tin without red iron as the weighting substance;

further, it may take a souple at the outset and dye it blue-black, and of more than incidental importance is the great simplification which it effects.

The importance of the present invention will be realized when it is remembered that tin is the most advantageous weighting material and that it has been impossible heretofore to use tin without red iron; otherwise the 'finished product being streaky, and the red iron necessitated the use of yellow prussiate and involved the long and cumbersome processes already sketched; hence the simplicity of the present method, which avoids the employment of red iron and prussiate.

By my procedure a blue-black bright or souple of any desirable weight can readily be obtained. Souple can be'taken'as such at the outset for the purpose, and in the entire procedure no red iron is employed, no prussiate, no divi, no stannous chlorid, and there are fewer steps, saving labor, handling, whereby the silk will be stronger and more durable, a great advantage to the manufacturer in the making up of the goodsthat is to say, in the winding and weaving of the dyed silkand saving expense, and with these advantages there is the pronounced achievement of obtaining a perfect blue-black on a strictly tinweighted bright or souple, whereas hereto fore all attempts have resulted in a streaky product, it having been possible to use black iron only on silk weighted with iron or weighted with tin and iron, and black iron never having been successfully used on silk weighted with tin alone, and of obtaining ablue-blaek of a faster dye than the ordinary black. It is, furthermore, to be observed that blue-black is generally preferred in the market to black, that black has only heretofore been made because of the greater difficulty and expenseof produeingblue-black in heavy weights, that to produce ordinary black the employment of anilin dyes has been essential, and my process being so simple and comparatively inexpensive, whereby blue-blacks can by it be made instead of blacks the great cost of anilin dyes is saved. Finally, there is the great advantage of simplifying the work and eeonomizing space and labor in the dye-house, inasmuch as in consequence of my procedure the preparatory work. 6., either soupling or boiling off and weighting-can be performed in one department for colors as well as for blacks.

In general I proceed as follows: Taking a bright, I weight it to any desired weight with tin, as well known, with proper washing, or I take a souple, weight it to any desired weight with tin, or 1 souple in the tin-Weighting, and then treat the bright or souple to a bath of water slightly acidulated, preferably with acetic acid, and then put into a bath of black iron of the usual strength and for the usual time. The silk is taken out of the bath, wrung out as usual, and after the proper time washed, and then placed from two to three hours in what is commonly called the old black-iron gambier bath -that is to say, a bath found in dye-houses consisting of the gambier bath in which previous lots coming from the black-iron bath have been dipped the bath being preferably strengthened with fresh gainbier solution, having added to it, according to the shade desired, logwood extract from thirty to fifty per cent. and fustic extract from forty to sixty per cent., both relatively according to the shade desired, and having been heated up to about centigrade. The silk is then taken out and washed and placed in a logwood bath, to which is then added soap, the temperature of the bath being raised until the desired shade is obtained. The silk when taken out is of an even and perfect blue-black. It is then washed and finished with oil and acid, as usual.

in all the procedures above set forth it is to be understood that after each washing the silk will have been whizzed-e1 (a, subjected to the action of the hydro-extractor.

Having thus fully described my invention, what 1 claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of dyeing tin-weighted silk a uniform blue-black, which consists in wei ghting the silk with tin, then subjecting it to a bath of black iron, and finally treating it with suitable vegetable extracts or dyes.

2. The process of dyeing silk blue-black, obtaining a product of any desired weight, which consists in weighting the silk with tin, subjecting it in sequence to an aeidulated bath, a black-iron bath, a black-iron gambier bath, containing matter for coloring according to the shade desired, and, then, to the dye bath, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JACOB WELDMANN.

WVitnesses:

Janus H. Roenns, E. SI-INIB. 

